After the recent approval by the Italian Space Agency (ASI) of the LARES mission, which will be launched at the end of 2008 by a VEGA rocket to measure the general relativistic gravitomagnetic Lense-Thirring effect by combining LARES data with those of the existing LAGEOS and LAGEOS II satellites, it is of the utmost importance to assess if the claimed accuracy . 1% will be realistically obtain...

Background: Interleukin (IL)-23 has an important role in tumor immune regulation. Objective: To investigate the possible association of interleukin-23 receptor (IL23R) gene variants rs1884444, rs10889677 and rs11209026 with development of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL). Methods: The IL23R variants were studied in 164 ALL patients and compared to 175 healthy controls by polymerase chain reac...

The variants of angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) and matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) genes might be involved in the pathogenesis of end stage renal disease (ESRD) and hypertension. We studied the ACE insertion/deletion (I/D) and MMP-7 A-181G variants in 99 unrelated ESRD patients and 117 individuals without renal complications from Western Iran with Kurdish ethnic background. The frequency ...

background and aims: the aim of this study was to determine the correlation between the hepatitis b virus surface ag (hbsag) genotypes and variations in the clinical/serological pictures among hbsag positive chronic patients from south khorasan province of iran. methods: twenty-five patients were enrolled in this study. the hbs ag gene was amplified and was directly sequenced. genotypes and nuc...

objective(s): similar characteristics of molecular pathways between cellular reprogramming events and tumorigenesis have been accentuated in recent years. reprogramming-related transcription factors, also known as yamanaka factors (oct4, sox2, klf4, and c-myc), are also well-known oncogenes promoting cancer initiation, progression, and cellular transformation into cancer stem cells. long non-co...

Regression and duratio n are com peting hed ging models for reducing the risk of a debt position. This paper compa res these mode ls to determ ine if one method provides consistently superior hedging results. Both perfect forecast (in-sample) and historical (out-ofsample) hedge ratios a re emplo yed to hedge the long-term Bellwether bond and the two-year T-note. The regression procedure provide...

New drugs for the treatment of human African trypanosomiasis are urgently needed. A number of 2-aminopyrazines/2-aminopyridines were identified as promising leads following a focused screen of 5,500 compounds for Trypanosoma brucei subsp. brucei viability. Described compounds are trypanotoxic in the submicromolar range and show comparably low cytotoxicity on representative mammalian cell lines....

Tzu-ging Lin, George Simion, John D. Watson, 3 Michael J. Manfra, 3, 4, 5 Gabor A. Csathy, Yuli Lyanda-Geller, 3 and Leonid P. Rokhinson 3, 4 1Department of Physics and Astronomy, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 USA 2Department of Physics, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 USA 3Birck Nanotechnology Center, Purdue University, West Lafayette, Indiana 47907 USA 4Dep...

Es geschah bei dem Gedanken der Kausalität, dass mir plötzlich der Gedanke auftauchte, den Kosmos als eine gigantische Rechenmaschine aufzufassen. Ich dachte dabei an die Relaisrechner: Relaisrechner enthalten Relaisketten. Stößt man ein Relais an, so pflanzt sich dieser Impuls durch die ganze Kette fort. So müßte sich auch ein Lichtquant fortpflanzen, ging es mir durch den Kopf. Der Gedanke se...

Affective com puting is an emer ging interdisciplinary research field bringing together researchers and practitioners from various fields, ranging from artificial intelligence, natural language processing, to cognitive and social sciences. With the proliferation of videos posted online (e.g., on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter) for product reviews, movie reviews, political views, and more, affective...